Elastic Compute Service:Import custom images

Use scenarios

Import custom images by using the ECS console

Perform the following operations to import an image file from your computer to ECS:

Step 1: (Optional) Grant access on OSS resources to ECS

The first time that you import custom images, you must use your Alibaba Cloud account to log on to the RAM console and grant access on OSS resources to ECS by attaching the AliyunECSImageImportDefaultRole role to ECS. If ECS already has access to OSS resources, skip this step.

Step 2: Import an custom image in the ECS console

1. Log on to the ECS console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Images.
3. In the left part of the top navigation bar, select a region.
   Important Make sure that the region of the OSS bucket where the image file is stored is selected.
4. In the upper-right corner of the Images page, click Import Image.
   
5. In the Prepare Before Import step, check whether the image meets the required conditions and click Next.
6. Click Confirm.
7. On the Import Image File step, configure the parameters that are described in the following table.

   Parameter	Required	Description
   Current Region	Yes	This parameter is automatically set to the current region. To change the region, close the Import Image dialog box and select a different region in the left part of the top navigation bar. Then, click Import Image to re-open the Import Image dialog box and continue to configure other parameters. Important Make sure that the region of the OSS bucket where the image file is stored is selected.
   Image File URL	Yes	Enter the URL of the image file.
   Image Name	Yes	Enter a name for the new custom image. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length and can contain letters, digits, periods (.), underscores (_), colons (:), and hyphens (-). It must start with a letter.
   OS Type	Yes	Configure OS Type based on operating system type of the image that you want to import from OSS. Valid values: windows and linux. If your image is a non-standard platform image, select linux.
   OS Version	Yes	Configure OS Version based on the operating system version of the image that you want to import from OSS. For information about supported operating system versions, see Instructions for importing images. If the operating system of your image is a custom distribution based on the Linux kernel, Submit a ticket.
   Architecture	Yes	Configure Architecture based on the operating system of the image that you want to import from OSS. Valid values: 32-bit 64-bit ARM 64-bit
   Boot Mode	No	Configure Boot Mode based on the boot mode of the image that you want to import from OSS. Valid values: BIOS and UEFI.
   Image Format	No	Valid values: Auto-detect, RAW, QCOW2, and VHD. Select the format of the image that you want to import from OSS. If you do not know the image format, you can select Auto-detect to allow the system to determine the image format. If you want to select an image format, we recommend that you select the QCOW2 or VHD format, which has a smaller transmission footprint. Note An ISO file must be converted to an image format that is supported by ECS before the file can be imported to ECS. For more information, see How do I convert ISO files to image formats that are supported by ECS?. You can also use Packer to create and import an image on your computer. For more information, see Use Packer to create and import an on-premises image and Alicloud Image Builder parameters used to implement DevOps.
   License Type	No	Select a license type to activate the source operating system after the image is imported. Default value: Auto. Valid values: Auto: Alibaba Cloud checks the source operating system and allocates a license. If this value is selected, the system checks whether a license has been allocated by Alibaba Cloud for your specified operating system version, and then performs an operation based on the check result. If a license has been allocated by Alibaba Cloud for the specified operating system version, the system allocates the license to the imported image. If no license has been allocated by Alibaba Cloud for the specified operating system version, the system switches the license type to BYOL. Alibaba Cloud License: the license allocated by Alibaba Cloud. If this value is selected, a license allocated by Alibaba Cloud is applied based on your selected operating system version. BYOL: the license that comes with the source operating system. If this value is selected, make sure that your license key can be used in Alibaba Cloud. For information about Red Hat Cloud Access and Windows licenses, see Overview and Microsoft licenses and Software Assurance.
   Disk Configurations	No	Specify the system disk size and add images that contains data from data disks. Select Configure Disk Attributes. You only need to specify the system disk size. Other system disk parameters are set by default. The system disk can range from 5 to 500 GiB in size and cannot be smaller than the image file. Note The image file size is the size of the image file that you want to import to OSS. You can view the image file size in the OSS console. Click increaseData Disk and configure the parameters. Image File URL: Enter the URL of the data disk image file. Obtain the URL of the data disk image file by using the same method as the system disk. Mount Point: The parameter is set by the system. Image Format: Valid values: Auto-detect, RAW, QCOW2, and VHD. Select the format of the image that you want to import from OSS. Disk SizeGiB: The data disk can range from 5 to 2,000 GiB in size and cannot be smaller than the image file. Note The image file size is the size of the image file that you want to import to OSS. You can view the image file size in the OSS console.
   Image Description	No	Enter a description for the new custom image.
   Tag	No	Specify tags to add to the new custom image. You can use tags to classify images for easy search and batch operations.
   Resource Group	No	Specify a resource group for the new custom image to simplify management. Important If the scope of permissions granted to your RAM user is limited to a specific resource group, select that resource group.

8. Confirm that your configurations are correct and click OK.
   The system then creates a task to import the image.

Step 3: (Optional) View or cancel the image import task

• View the image import task
  You can go to the Images or Task Logs page to view the progress of the image import task.

  Note The amount of time it takes to import a custom image depends on the image file size and the number of concurrent ongoing import tasks.

  When you import an image, snapshots are automatically generated. You can view the information of the snapshots on the Snapshots page in the ECS console. While the image import task is in progress, the state of the snapshots is displayed as Failed. When the image import task is completed, the snapshots enter the Successful state and the image enters the Available state. The total size of the snapshots is equal to the size of the imported image file, regardless of the system disk size that you set when you import the image. Snapshots are billed based on the amount of storage space they occupy. For more information, see Snapshots.

• Cancel the image import task
  Before the image import task is completed, you can cancel the task by using one of the following methods:

  • Method 1: On the Custom Image tab of the Images page, find the image that is being imported and click Cancel Import in the Actions column.
  • Method 2: On the Task Logs page, cancel the image import task.
    1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Maintenance & Monitoring > Tasks.
    2. Find the image import task that you want to cancel and click Cancel in the Actions column.

Import custom images by using SMC

Perform the following operations to use SMC to generate an ECS image for your server.

1. Log on to the ECS console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Images.
3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
4. In the upper-right corner of the Images page, click Online SMC Migration.
   You are redirected to the SMC console.
5. In the SMC console, download the SMC client. Decompress the SMC client, upload the SMC client to the source server, and then run the SMC client. Then, import the information of the source server to the SMC console.
   For more information, see Import the information about a migration source by using the SMC console or Import the information about a migration source by using the SMC client.
6. Create and start a migration task in the SMC console. Select ECS Image as the destination type.
   For more information, see Step 2: Create and start a migration task.
   After the migration task is completed, SMC generates a custom image for your source server. The image name starts with IMAGE_FROM_SMC. You can use the image to create ECS instances in the ECS console.